Earthworm Jim first appeared on the SNES and Genesis in 1994 in a hybrid platform and shoot ‘em up game developed by Shiny (better known more recently for the games based on The Matrix films). Earthworm Jim was in fact a normal garden earthworm, but when a magic super hero suit fell on him he became strong and heavily armed, and compelled to save the universe (as with all good videogame heroes!)

Jim could perform the usual range of platform game moves, running and jumping, going hand over hand along wires and so on. Firing rooted Jim to the spot, but this meant he could aim his gun at enemies. He could also whip enemies with himself! The suit was kind of alive, and would pull Jim’s body out and flick him quickly out. Jim could also hold on to wires with his wormy tail to allow him to fire at the same time as dangling precariously over clifftops! This also allowed him to use his body as a rope and swing from various special hook-on points throughout the game.


The game also had a crazy streak of humour running through it. A good example of this was early on in the first level where you had to drop a fridge onto a see-saw to launch a cow into space. It was this sense of humour that got Jim his own cartoon series, with Jim being voiced by none other than Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson no less! Some of the crazy characters to feature were Princess What’s-Her-Name, Professor Monkey-For-A-Head and Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-For-A-Butt.

Earthworm Jim 2 was a fairly standard sequel, i.e. more of the same kind of thing as the first game, which was no bad thing. The third game in the series was Earthworm Jim 3D, which appeared on the PC and N64, but unfortunately Jim didn’t really make the transition to a full 3D game very well, and there have unfortunately been no more games featuring our annelid chum since.

Thanks to one of our readers, nafi, for suggesting Earthworm Jim for our Advent calendar. An excellent choice!

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